Contact sports that involve high-impact hits requires protective equipment to be worn by all players in order to minimize the risk of serious sports injuries. As the consequences of injuries to the head of contact sports players can be particularly serious, leading to concussions and possibly even chronic conditions, protecting contact sports players from repeated hard impacts to the head must be a top priority. However, many contact sports helmets have a limited ability to absorb hard impacts, particularly when the impacts are received from the front including the face mask.
What is needed is an improved face mask mounting means which addresses at least some of the limitations in the prior art.